Picture a boxing match in a massive arena on an alien planet. There, the natives learn of the insanity of other races in the form of entertainment. On this night, they observe a match between two world leaders from a specific time on a small blue world in the corner of the milky way.The announcer presents the first fighter:In the red corner, standing at five foot six inches, weighing in at one hundred and sixty eight pounds, Joseph Stalin!A quiet-spoken man steps forward. He looks like that uncle who is always the calm center to the family storm.

You don't get to be a dominating power without cracking some heads.

They have what we want. Or, we have what they want. We won't give it to you. Will you consider a trade?

Killing is logical.

War is logical.

The announcer continues:And in the black corner, standing at five foot eight inches, weighing in at one hundred and seventy pounds, here's Adolf Hitler!Surprisingly, he is not the small man we might have expected – someone with an ego that large must be making up for something, right? Put aside the silly mustache and the mean countenance, and you might see this guy in the garage, cleaning his hands with a dirty rag.So, the stage is set, and we look at the combatants as if we are the alien audience. We know nothing about these men and have no preconceptions clouding what we see in their faces.The referee signals, both men move to the middle to face each other, and the rules are spoken.

Gentlemen, there is a treaty in effect. There will be no hitting.There will be . . .

One of the fighters suddenly smacks the other in the face and the fight begins.Now the technology these aliens possess reveals itself. The fight is not blood and sweat. Nor is it merely two men facing off. Holographic displays hovering above the ring intuitively show what is important moment by moment, blow by blow, flashing between still and moving images, charts and lists. Combat is shown as streams of data. And, prominent above all the bits of information is a tally – the death toll. Then, it becomes clear. Today's presentation is not about who wins in the arena. It is about who ends the most lives before the bout is over.But, this is where confusion sets in for the alien viewers. Theirs is a life of order. Everything is quantifiable, everything explained. If a star explodes, they know not only how many planets are sucked up in the supernova. They also know how many moons were around those planets. They have complete lists of asteroids and comets from that system, which planets had life, and the types and quantities of species.Now, with the fight started, the death tallies are presented with a margin of error and a murmur begins in the crowd. As the blows rain and the battle takes its toll, the tally grows and so does the margin. The murmurs grow louder.

The fight rages on. The tally grows and so does the margin. The audience is outraged. No, they feel little emotion at the meaning behind the numbers. Instead, they are angry at being toyed with. This is a joke. It must be.

TEN MILLION

On one planet, with one dominant species, they don't even know how many people they have, to know how many are lost!

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June 6, 1944. On Utah Beach and Omaha Beach, America storms Normandy, and the world will never be the same. It's D-Day, the event that changed the course of history forever. And the explosive story is in these war cards.

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